


Snowblood

by rubric



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Rey, Canon Rewrite, Dark Rey (Star Wars), Dark Reylo, Eventual Smut, F/M, Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Plot, Plotty, Rey will have a redemption arc too, Snoke will have an actual backstory, The Knights of Ren will be actual characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 11:20:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25848697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubric/pseuds/rubric
Summary: Rewrite of the Sequel Trilogy with a Dark-ish Rey element.  Rey as the woman from Kill Bill/Lady Snowblood inspiration---Rey, a mysterious dark side Force-wielder, travels the galaxy with a list of names.  A list of those that have wronged her, and from whom she is committed to take her revenge.She crosses paths with Kylo Ren, Commander of the First Order, interfering in his mission to track down Luke Skywalker.   He's angry, but he's also intrigued.   Who is this woman?  How was she trained in the Force?Circumstances force them to team up...  and neither of them will be the same afterward.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 7
Kudos: 50





	1. Unkar Plutt

Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, second hand to the Supreme Leader of the First Order and one of the most powerful Force users in the galaxy, stands in a sea of sand and sun, sweating.

The Jakku sun, caring nothing about his credentials or the fact he could Force-choke any of its planet's inhabitants with a nudge of his hand, bears down relentlessly.

 _What a shithole,_ he thinks for maybe the tenth time in the past hour. Decades ago, he notes, this place was a key battleground for the last stand of the Empire; now, it’s a galactic footnote. 

Scavengers still survive on its pickings, if surviving counts as spending every waking moment salvaging from the graveyard of ships just to earn subsistence rations.You could practically feel the air of hopelessness in the Force, hanging like a vergence.Despite the fact that his helmet is temperature controlled, Kylo feels the urge to wipe his brow.

Niima Outpost, one of the planet’s only major settlements, boasted a handful of marginally habitable blockhouses and tents.Scavengers mill about, trucking in their findings and leaving with their meager trades.There was not even a real spaceport, just a collection of ships in the sand.

That said, if the droid containing the map to Luke Skywalker's location was still on this planet, it would be here.The information he had wretched from the resistance pilot’s mind was clear on that.Kylo would not leave his latest lead to Luke Skywalker to chance. 

And so, the Commander of the First Order, flanked by two of his Knights of Ren, was here personally to seek it out.Sweating under his three layers of armor, padded tunic and robes,his fury building with every second he spends on this cursed sandpit.

“Ap'lek, Cardo.Search this place,” he barks.His two Knights, silent shadows in black, nod their masks and fan out in opposite directions.

Rifling through the minds of the locals gives Kylo direction.Kylo strides swiftly with purpose, his destination a blockhouse in the center of the settlement known as the “Concession Stand”, by far its largest building.The junk boss, a Crolute called “Unkar Plutt”, feared and disdained in equal measure by the locals if their minds were any indicator, controlled all commerce. If a droid was found and traded, the cretin would have knowledge of it.

The bars behind the window of the blockhouse are empty, however. Unmanned.

“Where is the junk boss?”Kylo asks the scavenger closest to the front, a cowering Nu-Cosian missing an eye.

“Unkar Plutt?He was here five minutes ago, er, sir—”

Kylo doesn’t bother to wait for any other answers.He raises his hand, and searches through the scavenger’s mind. 

The Crolute was last seen running.Flagging some cronies down as he headed across town, toward a bunker.

Chased by… _a girl?_

A human girl, maybe twenty years old, he plucked from the scavenger’s mind.A girl, fierce in her anger, brandishing a lightsaber.

Kylo Ren doesn’t wait.He runs in the direction of the bunker, stamping sand along the way.

The entrance to the bunker is littered with the bodies of two armored Melitto that have been neatly cut by a lightsaber blade.Their blasters lay useless at their sides.Kylo does not wait before he descends.

He finds the Crolute backed into a corner, waving a blaster.

Facing the Crolute, legs planted, there is the woman. The girl.Slim and muscular, she’s dressed in loose grey robes, her hair in three buns.She is twirling a purple-bladed light saber staff confidently in her right hand. Kylo has a split second to admire her form from behind.

 _Glorious._ The thought comes to Kylo unbidden.

The girl turns, registering Kylo Ren with a flat gaze, almost as if triggered by his thought. 

He reigns in his focus and ignites his lightsaber in a smooth hiss.

They assess each other briefly while the Crolute stares at them both with widened eyes.

She makes no other concession to the fact that the Master of the Knights of Ren, Commander of the First Order, is standing there wielding a deadly lightsaber.

“Stay out of this,” she finally spits, eyes flashing.“Unkar Plutt is mine.” 

She points the lightsaber at the Crolute to emphasize her point.

She is no Jedi, that much was certain.The powerful dark Force energy crackling in the air, buttressed by her anger, betrays her murderous intent.  Her voice is clear, confident, and if she's threatened by the imposing man in front of her, she makes no sign.

“Commander Ren,” the Crolute blubbers, grasping.“Help me.The girl… stop her!” 

“Shut up.”Kylo is both irritated and intrigued.He makes no move, and continues to face the girl.

“I’m afraid that the fat one-,” Kylo says slowly, pointing his saber, “-is mine.He possess knowledge critical to the First Order.You are in my way.”His voice is flat through the modulation of his mask.

The girl levels a look at him.“And you are in mine.”She shifts, pointing her saber staff at Kylo Ren, now.“Unkar Plutt must die.”

“Who are you?Who trained you how to use that?” He says to the girl, diverting. But genuinely curious.

“Who taught you how to build a lightsaber?” She taunts back.“That thing looks like it’s one ignition away from exploding in your hand.” 

Beside him, his red blade crackles, as if to underscore the accusation of instability.

He should be furious, he thinks.Instead, he twirls his blade and smiles behind his helmet.He’s going to enjoy teaching this girl a lesson, he thinks.

They circle each other and begin their dance. 

The girl continues to taunt. “Nice outfit, by the way,”she drawls.“Didn’t anyone tell you you were coming to the desert?All black is a bold move.” She twirls her staff expertly in response to his motions.

“I’m not planning on staying long,” he snaps.Whether or not she picked up on his discomfort through the Force, or just made a lucky guess, he’s not sure.Either way, the taunt has its desired reaction.

“No?”She raises an eyebrow. “I thought the same thing once,” she says bitterly. 

_So she lived on this pitiful backwater_ , Kylo wonders.How a powerful Force user could have emerged on Jakku under their noses, he knows not.But he would certainly find out.Once he subdued her.

He palms the lightsaber with both hands and attempts a slash at her center.With Force-enhanced reflexes, she blocks it easily with a spin of her staff, and continues circling.Kylo brings down his lightsaber in a few more swings, testing.

“You wield that staff well.Who trained you, girl?” He asked again.

Her eyes glitter.“Are the Sith the only ones _permitted_ to handle a lightsaber these days?”

“I am no Sith,” he snarls.“And I’ve made it a personal mission of mine to see that all remaining Jedi have been neutralized.” 

“I’m _not_ a Jedi,” she says lightly in response.

“No,” he admits.“You’re something else.”

“Ah, you’ve figured it out,” she responds, patronizing him.“I was beginning to wonder if they hand picked First Order soldiers simply for brains small enough to fit under those helmets.” 

Kylo seethes a bit, as they exchange a few more blows.Neither of them gaining any advantage.

Kylo is uncharacteristically patient, choosing to defend.He is rewarded as he sees the girl getting sloppier, growing frustrated at their stalemate.“Get out of my way,” she snarls again. 

“I think not,” he responds flatly. Another drive with his saber. 

She reaches her hand out and attempts to Force push a pile of loose bricks at him.He diverts it with the Force and they crackle to dust a few feet away as they hit the opposite wall. 

The Crolute in the wake of the dust, attempts to move past them, aiming toward the exit. 

Both Kylo and the girl give him a look of murder and he freezes.  Kylo takes the opportunity to Force pull the blaster away from the Crolute, smashing it against a wall.

The girl was strong.Both in the Force and with the lightsaber.But Kylo takes advantage of his sheer physical strength and reigns down a flurry of moves that ends with their sabers locked at his cross-guard.

 _Time to end this,_ he thinks.

They are still locked together, nearly chest to chest, when Kylo shoves back with an upward swing.The saber staff spins out of the girl's hands to land on the other side of the room, shutting off.

Kylo holds his crackling blade inches from her neck. 

“You’re defeated.Surrender and return with me, or die.You choose,” he murmurs softly. 

The girl, unexpectedly, just smiles.The bitterness vanishes and there’s something soft in it, an echo of who she once was, Kylo thinks, before whatever tainted her Force signature dark.

She raises her unarmed hand and the Force swirls around them both in a wave.Kylo’s vision turns, blurrying, before settling on a strange place.

Kylo blinks and finds himself in a shadowed, unfamiliar room.Light spills from a window, revealing a dusty wall with hundreds - no, thousands - of scratch marks etched into it. 

He looks around.It’s an old Imperial construction, he gathers.Made into a home of sorts.There’s a small kitchen area, a hammock for sleeping, and curiously - a doll of a rebellion pilot on a shelf.

He turns to the window and sees the endless landscape of Jakku sand.

 _How did she… where am I?_ He wonders, before it registers to him.

 _A Force illusion!_

He’d heard of the ancient technique, but had thought it lost.No Force users, Jedi, Sith or otherwise, have been known to wield it in decades or more.

Kylo concentrates, attempting to the find the thread of the Force holding the illusion together.It’s bound well.But Kylo tugs, and tugs.

When the vision unwinds, he finds himself back in the bunker, facing the motionless figure of the Crolute. Neatly cut in half.

No sign of the girl.

Rage floods through him.His last lead to Luke Skywalker, gone.He curls his fist.

Just then, he sees the light blocking the entrance.One of his Knights has found him.

“There’s no sign of the droid,”Ap’lek offers.The Knight’s mask turns as he assess the damage. “What happened here?”He asks bluntly.

“I had an encounter with another Force user,” Kylo spits.

Kylo senses curiosity behind the Knight’s masked face.“She killed him?”Ap’lek points to the remainders of the Crolute on the floor. 

“Yes.She used a Force illusion on me and escaped,”Kylo seethes.

“A Force illusion?”Ap’lek repeats thoughtfully.“But she left you alive,” he adds.“She was a Jedi, then?One of the ones from Luke’s temple, maybe?”

Kylo can’t explain why.He shakes his head in response. 

“No.She’s someone else.Something else.She used the dark side.”

“Interesting,” Ap’lek responds simply.“What now?”

“Now we find her.She interfered in our mission to track down Luke Skywalker, and is a threat,”Kylo huffs. 

Ap’lek nods.“Understood.The threat to the First Order will be eliminated, Master.”

“No,”Kylo’s eyes glitter behind his mask.He pauses for a beat, then continues. 

“Capture her.I want her alive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH I'm sorry / not sorry I started this, I have way too many WIP going but ah well. Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Other canonverse ish things I've written
> 
> [still my bleeding heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25520728)  
> [A Cat, A Porg, and a Jedi enter a bar](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324354)


	2. Jakku

Safely aboard her stolen ship and speeding through hyperspace, Rey allows herself a moment to breathe.

Her run-in with the First Order Commander was unfortunate.She knows First Order scrutiny would bring additional complications.Furthermore, being on Kylo Ren’s radar was particularly disturbing.Ren did not seem like a man who would forget their encounter, and leave her to her mission in peace.

Still, Rey would not be deterred.

She’d heard stories of the mysterious Commander, and was now disposed to believe they were true after witnessing with her own eyes.He was strong in the Force, and it took a tremendous draw of her will and training to inflict the Force illusion on his mind.She barely got out of Jakku alive, weakened as she was, with the First Order crawling all over Niima Outpost.

Still, Rey could not help but think on their meeting with curiosity.When she made her desperate play with the illusion, there was a moment where their minds were connected.His inner world was a puzzling contrast with his imposing First Order facade.In the brief seconds Rey caught images of a woman, elegantly dressed, braiding a lock of his hair.A sense of longing and doubt, as he knelt before the mask of Darth Vader.Loneliness. 

Rey knows all about loneliness.

She puts her lightsaber on the console and reaches under it to her secret hiding spot, the place where she keeps the letter.

The letter is Rey’s most precious possession.

She used to bring it with her scavenging, tucked near her breast, before the sweat weeping into the paper made it brittle and fade.When she realized what was happening, she panicked.

From then on, she kept it hidden in a rusty metal box, stuffed into in a vent in her AT-AT.When she returned from scavenging there was always a brief moment of terror before she confirmed it was still there, folded neatly.

For the longest time, she could not read the words.When she was eight she scavenged a prized datapad, and used it to teach herself how to read, as neither Unkar Plutt nor the other scavengers had any interest in helping her. 

That was fine. By that point, Rey was resigned to having to fend for herself in most things.

_R-E-Y_

Her name is the first thing she learns.

_Dearest Rey,_

She stares at the handwritten greeting again and again.She’s read the words thousands of times by now, committed them to heart, but still looks for a clue in the letters put to paper.A turn of phrase, the curve of _c’s_ and the dotting of the _i’s,_ something that might reveal a new piece of her history.

_Dearest Rey,_

_We are sorry to leave you here.Know that it’s one of the hardest things we’ve done. But you are not safe with us.There are many who would harm you, and I cannot allow that to happen, my darling girl._

_I cannot lie to you even now, Rey.What I am about to attempt is dangerous, and I may not come back alive.If we do not return for you, avenge us.The names on this list represent those responsible for our separation, and grief. You are strong, stronger than you know._

_With all my love,_

The signature is scuffed out.Whether it was age, or a malicious actor who removed it, she knows not.She has tried every technique under the sun, bending the letter to the light to scrutinize the etchings, but the signature always evades her.

_The names on this list represent those responsible for our separation, and grief_

Unbidden, a tear forms in her eye.Carefully, Rey returns the letter to its hiding spot. Laying her head back on the headrest of the pilot's chair in the cockpit, she allows sleep to finally take her.

———

Rey dreams, and her dreams are her nightmares from her past life on Jakku.

———

She’s fourteen, returning with her meager earnings from scavenging when she spies the newest arrivals to Jakku.Among them, a beautiful blue eyed girl.Maybe eight standard years.Could be older. She’s tall but has that malnourished look to her, common to orphans here. 

Rey's first thought is she’s too large.

Unkar Plutt makes the small kids crawl into the tight spaces, where the larger scavengers can’t reach.It’s the middle phases, where the children are too large to be of use to Plutt, but not clever or strong enough to beat the older scavengers for the best pickings, where the children are most at risk.

More than half of refugees to Jakku die within a year.To protect herself, Rey generally refuses to engage.But something about this girl is especially sad, and causes Rey to pause. The way she's standing, how she clutches her doll, a tattered replica of a rebellion pilot from the Galactic war.

The girl catches Rey’s gaze hopefully.Rey manages a small smile, then turns away. 

———

A new prize.A sandstorm has unearthed some wreckage to the east of Niima Outpost.An Imperial Star Destroyer. The scavengers descend like wolves.

They are already crawling all over the engine room, only 100 meters from the ground, easy access.Rey stays away and tries to find the bridge.It’s a long climb up, the ship having crashed at a steep diagonal.Rey is sweating as she tries to find purchase. 

When she arrives, the room is yet untouched by the other scavengers, but to Rey’s disappointment is a crumbling mess.It must have taken a direct hit in the battle.There are no recognizable remains.

Later, Rey, stands outside, resting in the shadows cast by the severe planes of the warship. She’s still empty handed.She’s cursing her luck when she spies the girl she’d seen weeks ago, the new arrival, watching her from another shadow.

“You there. What is your name?”Rey calls out to her, revealing the fact that she’s aware of her presence.

The girl walks forward apprehensively, closing the distance.

“Ava,” she crows, in her tiny voice. 

Ava looks even worse than before.Her blonde hair is tangled and faded, battered by the sand.She’s even skinner, if that’s possible.She’s still clutching that doll, which is also worse for the wear, the orange jumpsuit turning a mottled brown.Still carrying that sad look, clouded with a familiar hopelessness, one that Rey has long learned to bury in favor of the practicality required to survive on Jakku.

“Well Ava, I don’t know about you,” Rey tries to sound cheerful.“But I’ve had a bad day.” 

Ava nods, knowingly. 

“Here,” Rey sighs, passing the poor girl her canteen.The girl drinks from it gratefully, then hands it back.They sit in silence for a beat.

Ava then reaches out a small hand, tentatively, inviting Rey to take it.

Rey looks at it briefly, then clasps the tiny hand with hers.

She guides Rey forward, about fifteen meters away, to the shadow the girl emerged from.

Rey sees it.A half-buried access latch on the side of the ship.A pile of sand beside it.Ava had been hard at work trying to expose it.

Rey nods to the girl, and together, they work to remove the remainder of the sand.

Rey uses an ion slicer to cut the locking mechanism free, and with a grunt and powerful tug, the two girls pull the hatch open.

They crawl inside.It’s a maintenance vent that leads to a treasure.

A secured storage room, untouched.The controls have been preserved but Rey hacks into them, finding several hundred portions’ worth of salvageable parts.

At Rey’s direction, she and Ava gather the most valuable things, including some parts for her speeder, when Rey catches something glinting on a shelf.Rey feels something electric, a palpable tingle in the air as she approaches.

A charred cylinder of metal.There’s a switch, and an access hatch on its side.Rey presses the switch, but nothing happens.When she opens the hatch, it exposes some complex circuitry and some kind of modulation gate.It looks to be completely broken, Rey must admit.But finds herself compelled to take it with her anyway. 

She smiles at Ava as they load her speeder.

There’s a moment where she’s startled by the unfamiliar sensation of human touch as tiny arms grasping her waist. 

They stay that way, clutched tight, as they barrel together across the sand.

———

In the shelter of her AT-AT, well-fed, Rey watches Ava smile for the first time.

She’s playing with her Rebellion pilot doll. 

“I’m Luke Skywalker!And I will destroy the Death Star!”The girl croons happily.

 _This is how children should live_ , Rey thinks.

Useless as it appears to be, Rey doesn’t trade the strange metal cylinder.Instead, she tucks it away with her other treasure, the letter, in the rusty box she keeps in her vent.

———

Six months later, Ava gets sick.

The fever is not like anything Rey has seen before.Was it poison?Some kind of mysterious virus?She wastes liter after liter of precious water, trying to fight the Jakku sun to bring it down. 

Nothing breaks it.

Ava thrashes in agony, too delirious to even remember her name.

After two days with no respite, Rey goes to see Unkar Plutt.

“This isn’t a charity, girl.Medical supplies start at twenty portions.Bring me something worth the trade.”

He looks at her speeder.

“Your speeder, for example,” he continues. _Predictable_.

“You spend at least that much a day feeding your pet happabore,” Rey snarls.“Give it to me on credit.You know I’m good for it.”

His browless eyes squint.“There. is. no. credit.You should know that.Go find something and bring it to me.”

“Fine,” she snarls. _Greedy fucking blobfish._

As she hops on her speeder, Rey’s anger builds and builds.There is a tightness growing in her chest.

_———_

Unkar Plutt turns the cylinder in his hand and finds a switch, hitting it back and forth.Nothing happens.“Hmm, it doesn’t seem to work. Too bad.”

He places it back on the counter.“I’ll give you 50 portions for it.”

Rey has never seen 50 portions at once.“80,” she says.If he offered that much up front, it was worth at least double.She tightens her grip on the cylinder.

“Very well then.”He pushes an armful of duroseal wrapped piles toward her, not even looking her way.

With her free hand, Rey pushes half of them back.“I want the medkit.” 

Unkar Plutt nods, fetching a black case and shoving it across the counter.

Reluctantly, Rey lets her treasure go.He places the cylinder in a box on a high shelf.Rey knows that is where he keeps his collectables, the junk he doesn’t ship off-planet.

Before leaving, she pauses.“What is that, anyway?”

“My girl.This is a lightsaber.Or was.Old Jedi weapon.No more Jedi though, right?Thing is a dead as they are.”

———

Heart racing with the adrenaline, she returns to the AT-AT with the portions and the medkit, her speeder rattling as she pushes it to top speed. _Unkar Plutt, that snake,_ is all that she can think.It took her 40 minutes to make the round trip back to Niima Outpost, wasting precious time.When she left to fetch the lightsaber, she’d checked on Ana. Her condition seemed to be worsening by the second. 

Rey pushes the doors open, medkit in hand. Her panic gets no reprieve.

Ava’s chest is barely moving.Her skin has a blueish tint.

Rey tries everything in the kit, every injectable. 

An hour later, Ava takes her last breath.Rey clutches the girl’s tiny hands until she feels the last strangled breath depart.

Something in Rey breaks. 

Silent tears fall freely down her cheek.But she’s shaking with fury, a fury she’s kept tamped for years and years.She’s vibrating with her rage, and the vibrations seem to leak out of her, into the floor of her hovel, into the sand outside. 

She hears the sound of glass breaking.Shelves shift and crack in unison.Ava’s body in her hammock swings of its own accord.The sand outside, calm seconds ago, batters her AT-AT in unison with her grief.

Rey’s fury is alive.

She snatches vent cover open, pulling out her treasure box. 

As pieces of her home continue to shake and shudder around her, she finds a pen.

Taking the letter, she stabs another name to the bottom of the paper, scrawled in her rough hand:

 **UNKAR PLUTT** ****

———

Suddenly Rey stands and spins, sensing a foreign presence.

There’s a stranger here now.

A man that was not in her memory of the scene. 

He stands there, watching her private anguish with a puzzled gaze.

The man is frightfully tall, pale, with an angular face and piercing dark eyes.Young, maybe late twenties, clad all in black.His mouth is large, and softly parted, and his hair falls in loose curls to his neck.

 _“_ Who are you?”Dream Rey accuses him, angry at his invasion.She wants to reach for something... a weapon.She looks for her quarterstaff.But her hands are empty. 

The scene around her blurs, Ava fading away, and she is left facing only the stranger.

“It’s... it’s you,” is all the stranger manages.

His voice is a deep baritone, and vaguely familiar. He looks around.“Why is the Force connecting us?” His voice is oddly calm and curious, continuing to examine his surroundings.

Dream Rey remembers now.The Force.She conjures up the image of her lightsaber staff, and it appears in her grip, twin purple blades ignited and pulsing with her fury.

“Get out of my head,” she snarls. 

“This is where you put me.In the illusion,” the man continues, his voice pitched the same infuriating calm. 

“This was... your home?” He tilts his head.

“GET OUT!”Rey screams, rattling the cage of her dream.

The world explodes in black.

———

Rey jerks awake in the pilot’s seat, covered in a cool sweat.

She makes the connection immediately.

"Kylo Ren," she exhales sharply.Her eyes widen.

 _WHY was he in my dream?_


	3. Report

Kylo’s brief nap was not restful. He wishes he could rub his temples, but his mask is in the way. 

A stormtrooper is briefing them on the latest update from Jakku. 

Ap’lek tilts his helmet. “Something wrong, Master?” He senses Kylo’s agitation.

“Any new report?” Kylo snaps, ignoring his Knight’s question. The stormtrooper is already shriveling back.

“You’re not going to like it.” Ap’lek drawls.

Kylo’s patience is growing thin. “Spit it out,” he says, staring at the stormtrooper. 

The stormtrooper speaks. “Sir, the droid was last spotted near a stolen Corellian YT model freighter that took off shortly before you and the…uh…,” he grasps a bit for the correct title, glancing at the enormous vibroaxe-wielding man…”Knight exited the bunker.”

“The girl with the description you provided,” he continues, squirming under his white armor, “was also seen by a group of Teedos near the same ship. We believe that she escaped on it.”

Kylo ignites his lightsaber with a hiss. 

“A Corellian YT model freighter?” Kylo says flatly.

 _It can’t be the same ship_ , Kylo thinks. _Impossible._

The stormtrooper nods, visibly trembling under the red glow, and stumbles back. 

Ap’lek radiates amusement under his mask as he speaks. “Well, FN-2187? Tell Commander Ren the rest.”

“The lo-…. the lo-”, the stormtrooper stutters, “— _locals_ say she was a scavenger. Her name is Rey. She was left under the care of Unkar Plutt by an unknown party when she was a child. Last seen two years ago. Just vanished, according to their reports, until now.”

Kylo recalls the dream that was not a dream. He has to be sure, however.

“Fetch me a transport,” he says coldly, extinguishing his lightsaber.

———

Standing in the ruins of the AT-AT in the middle of the desert, Kylo’s conclusions are confirmed.

The marks on the wall. The ragged doll. The tattered hammock.

He strides over to the corner wall, and pries off the grate to a vent.

Inside, there is a rusty box, flung open, empty.

Ap’lek and Cardo watch, radiating confusion, but know better than to voice their questions out loud. 

Kylo spins around, addressing them. 

“Ready my ship. I need to speak with the Supreme Leader,” he snaps, his black mood swirling around him like armor.

Ap’lek and Cardo bow, then make their exits.

Before he leaves, Kylo looks back, a brief moment of hesitation. 

_Fuck it._

Tentatively, he reaches a hand out into the air.

The doll of the Rebellion pilot flies across the room, landing neatly in his palm. 

He curls his fist around it, as tightly as a weapon, and walks out.

———

Rey is sitting at a table in the ship’s galley, cursing her judgement for having stolen, of all ships, the biggest pile of junk in Plutt’s shipyard. Not that she had a ton of options at the time. Still, this ship was probably on its last legs thirty years ago, and twenty years sitting in the Jakku sand hasn’t done it any favors. She’s already had to re-wire the power converter four times and rip out that useless compressor. Whoever owned the ship had made a lot of modifications, many of them of questionable utility... and taste. 

She’s finally got the thing stable enough to leave it on autopilot and wander away from the cockpit without having to worry about an imminent engine failure. At least she hopes so, as she explores a bit. 

There’s a few bunks, a small fresher (sonic only, she’s disappointed to see) and a galley with a holochess table that’s seen better days. 

On the table before her is the letter. She’s been staring at it for ten minutes. 

Carefully, she crosses out one name.

~~UNKAR PLUTT~~

It’s just… not as satisfying as she thought it would feel, she admits. 

She’s still wrestling with her feelings when she hears a rattling noise from the aft of the ship.

Leaving the letter on the table, she stands up to explore the source of the noise. She grabs her lightsaber reflexively, never far away from her these days. 

As she walks the corridor, the noises grow louder and start to form into more recognizable sounds. She hears a combination of a series of beeps - _is that binary?_ \- and knocking. It’s coming from the floor. Rey’s soon standing directly over the spot where the noise is the loudest.

Bending over, Rey places her lightsaber at an easy arms’ reach while she explores with her hands. After a few minutes, she finds a groove with a hidden latch. At a firm press, it pops a hatch in the floor to reveal a secret compartment. Probably used for smuggling, she gathers.

Inside, rattling around, there’s a tiny ball-shaped droid with a domed hat. A BB-8 unit. How it got in there she has _absolutely_ no idea.

There’s about an inch of dust coating the walls inside. The droid kicks it up as it scoots around, emitting a series of plaintive-sounding warbles. Rey fights the urge to sneeze.

“Hey! Stop moving!” Rey calls out, crinkling her nose. 

A series of frantic sounding beeps, and warbles. 

“I’m not letting you out until you tell me what you are doing down there!” Rey huffs in reply to the droid’s demand. 

More warbles.

“Yes, I can see you are a stowaway,” Rey responds wryly. “How did you get on board?”

Beep, warbles.

“Escaping some bad men on Jakku, eh. Sounds familiar.” Rey bends over, and grabs the droid with both hands. She places it safely on the deck of the ship as she closes the hatch. The droid speeds around happily, enjoying its newfound freedom. 

Rey looks around the compartment for anything else of value. There’s a few other things inside— among them, a small case of Corellian whiskey, nicely aged if the layer of dust was any indicator. Rey hoists it up, wiping her hands on the sides of her tunic afterward. 

The droid stops exploring for a second, and pauses at her lightsaber on the floor. It blurts out a series of warbled questions.

“No, I’m not a Jedi,” Rey laughs. “And I don’t know Luke Skywalker. Didn’t he vanish like a hundred years ago? For all the galaxy knows, he’s dead, right?”

There’s a series of haughty sounding beeps. 

“A map? If you say so little ball droid,” Rey replies, skeptical. Crouching down, she examines the droid for any obvious damage. Besides a few dents and scratches, and residual sand in his joints, he seems to be in decent shape. He’d be worth at least 50 portions on Jakku, once cleaned up, Rey thinks automatically. Old habits are hard to break. 

A few more warbles and beeps.

“No, I’ve nothing to do with the Resistance,” Rey shakes her head. “I’m afraid I can’t help you. I have some business on Tatooine though, and there’s a spaceport there. You might be able to find someone friendly there.”

The droid replies with a long resigned whistle. 

Standing up, Rey grabs her lightsaber with one hand and the case of whiskey under another arm. “Well. I need to get something to eat, and you look like you could use a nice long lubricant bath to get rid of that sand.” The BB-8 unit chirps in agreement as she starts walking back toward the galley.

Following her, the droid emits another series of questioning beeps. 

“No, I’m _not_ going to let you take a bath in the whiskey,” she states firmly.

In spite of herself, the corners of Rey’s mouth turns up in a little smile. 

———

Kylo Ren has never quite been able to banish that lump of dread that forms in his throat when waiting to enter the Supreme Leader’s throne room. Sure, he’s been able to tamp it down, to squeeze it to a pebble that lasts just the briefest of seconds, but he can’t get rid of it entirely. 

_A weakness_ , he thinks, ashamed, as the doors slide open, beckoning him to enter.

No sooner than he steps inside, Snoke’s booming voice echoes across the chamber. “Hux has informed me of your failure to capture the map to Luke Skywalker.” 

Ahead, Hux, General of the First Order stands facing the enormous thirty meter tall hologram of the Supreme Leader. Kylo can't see his face, but he's no doubt preening at the failure of his rival.

Kylo passes General Hux on his way out, and as suspected, he bears a satisfied sneer. How easily Ren could crush that look with the Force, and how he hated that he could not freely do so in Snoke’s presence. That Hux was so bold despite the fact he was so comparatively _inferior_ to Ren, in the Force and otherwise, never failed to get under Kylo’s skin. 

“You wonder to yourself why I keep a rabid cur in such a place of power,” Snoke drawls, reading Kylo’s mind. “A cur's weakness, properly manipulated, can be a sharp tool.”

With these words, Kylo knows that in his way, Snoke’s teaching him a lesson. Still, Kylo is wary. The Supreme Leader, despite being a hologram located parsecs away on the _Supremacy_ , is no less dangerous. Mysteriously, he can wield the Force through time and space. He’s never explained the secret of it to Kylo. Despite praising Ren’s strength in the Force and naming him his chosen apprentice, there are secrets that Snoke still keeps hidden from him, even after all these years. 

There’s a lot about Snoke that is still a mystery, Ren thinks. Where he came from, for one. He was certainly alive during the days of the Galactic Empire, but why and how he had remained hidden under the noses of powerful Force users like Emperor Palpatine and Vader was never explained. Nor did Snoke share how, or why, he decided to re-emerge. 

Snoke may have once been a Sith Lord, Ren gathers, but was possibly one no longer. He encouraged Kylo to embrace the dark side, and wielded it exclusively himself, but at the same time disparages a lot of the Sith teachings and beliefs. 

“The rule of two was a mistake,” he remembers Snoke telling him in one lesson, referring to the Sith Order guideline, instituted by Darth Bane, of having only one master and one apprentice to make up its total ranks. “With so few numbers, it made it inevitable for the enemies of the Sith to track them down and eventually eliminate them.”

If there was any awkwardness broaching his next statement, Snoke didn’t show it. He looked at Kylo directly.

“Of course, there is also the Sith practice of ascension: the apprentice only completing his journey to Sith Master once he successfully kills his own.”

“A waste,” he continued in a level voice, never breaking his gaze. “Thus the Sith have crippled themselves throughout history. After all, who can guarantee the transfer from master to student is complete? So much lost. The knowledge and power the Sith held during the time of Lord Vitiate’s thousand-year rule may never be regained.” Snoke had shaken his head, genuinely disturbed.

Still, Sith or not, Kylo knows better than to underestimate his master. He’s powerful in the dark side of the Force, and even if the stories about Darth Sidious's power are true, Snoke seemed to wield knowledge even beyond Palpatine and Vader. Snoke had been in Kylo’s mind even before he knew it, as far back as when he was a child, before he had learned control and mastery of his powers. Sometimes Kylo wondered how many of the thoughts and feelings he had were truly his.

Kylo, reaching the base of the dias where Snoke’s hologram floated, kneels.

“Master.” Kylo waits with his head bowed.

“Tell me about the girl,” Snoke continues. 

_So he already knows. Of course he does._

Kylo gives his report. “She interfered with my interrogation of a local. A crolute who had knowledge of the location of a droid that has the map to Skywalker. She’s strong with the Force. Appears to be trained. She’s filled with anger. Hate. She wielded the dark side.”

“And she beat you, Apprentice?” Snoke continues, voice pitching higher as he reaches the punchline.

Kylo looks up and grunts, fighting feelings of shame. “She used a… a Force Illusion on me, Master.” 

“The great Kylo Ren. Bested by a desert girl,” Snoke muses. But it’s not a taunt. He's processing something. 

“A Force Illusion. How curious. A powerful ability,” Snoke continues, thinking out loud. “The Sith master Naga Sadow was a master of the technique. It’s been lost for centuries or more, to both Jedi and Sith. Many Force users can manage a mind trick, but you, my apprentice, have your rare strength in probing and telepathy. That she was capable of performing such a technique, and on _you_... ” Snoke trails off. 

Kylo leans in, curious to hear more from his master. He had come to generally the same realization, but he senses Snoke holding something back. 

Snoke’s eyes narrow as he reaches some internal conclusion.

“You’ll find this girl, my apprentice. She’ll join us, or die.”

Kylo bows his head in acknowledgement. Sensing the interview is complete, he rises to leave. Kylo does not offer up the strange dream that-was-not-a-dream he had with the girl, certainly a product of the Force. Some instinct warns him not to. His master held his secrets, and Kylo held his own.

There’s a sense of mild relief that Snoke did not simply command him to kill the girl. Kylo brushes it off. It’s just her potential as a powerful darkside user. It would be a waste to not attempt to bring her to the side of the First Order, after all. 

He recalls the way she stood there, feet planted, with her purple saberstaff locked against his blade. The challenge in her gaze when Kylo had knocked it out of her hands, and he held his saber against her throat. That smile that was an echo of the desert girl he saw in his dream.

Perhaps there’s just a small amount of personal curiosity in the girl, he admits. Nothing more.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Force illusions and other legends shit will be incorporated! And other liberties taken with the universe :)  
> https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mind_trick/Legends
> 
> Trying to also make Snoke less of just a caricature of a bad guy


	4. Bond

When Kylo wakes up, he finds the scavenger girl in his quarters. He feels strangely… disoriented. 

She’s sitting at his desk, with a bottle of-- is that Corellian whiskey?-- in her hand, in the middle of taking a long swig.

There’s a brief second where they are both struck dumb. Then, grabbing his lightsaber from his nightstand, he jumps up and ignites it. At the same time, Rey leaps from her chair, doing the same with her saberstaff.

For a few seconds, they stand off meters from each other. The room is bathed in a psychedelic purple and red glow. 

“How did you get–” They both say at the exact same time, before trailing off. 

The girl moves first. “You’ll die now,” she slurs, as she brings her saferstaff down at Kylo’s head. 

Her movement is… clumsy, Kylo realizes, blocking it, but also finding his reflexes slow.

“What did you do to me?” He accuses her, rage bubbling up. “How did you get in my quarters?” 

“You… YOUR quarters?” Rey pitches her voice archly in response. The girl sounds genuinely confused, and like Kylo, pulls her blade back. “You’re on MY ship.” Her eyes dart around, as if double-checking to confirm her own statement.

She puffs up her chest and attempts to pose menacingly with her lightsaber staff. The effect is ruined by a slight teeter. “I assure you, Commander Ren,” she replies with exaggerated hauteur. “You’re the last person in the galaxy I want to see right now. I was here, minding my own karking business, when you appeared out of nowhere, on my bunk.” 

“I know where I am,” Kylo huffs, wondering why he feels so disoriented.

“Are you doing this? Is this a Force projection?” He looks at her pointedly.

Shaking his head, trying to shake the fog he feels. “No. The effort would kill you.”

A new idea occurs to him. “You’re drunk.” 

“I am not–“

“I can feel it,” he interrupts. “The Force is connecting us, somehow. Whatever you did on Jakku… I think it created a bond. But this is unlike any Force bond i’ve ever read about,” Kylo ponders aloud. 

“What.. a Force bond? That’s a real thing?” 

Kylo looks at her oddly. He had no idea where she was trained, but given her experience with Force Illusions, would have expected she would have known about Force bonds. “Yes. It was not unheard of, between master and padawan... or other relationships.” He turns his eyes away. “It is a bridging of the minds that allows two Force users to communicate across space. Share thoughts, emotions.”

Knowing it’s a risk, because the girl is strong and would probably not appreciate being taken advantage of in her current state, Kylo reaches out with a light Force probe. Her Force signature is as clear as if she was standing right next to him. Remarkable. 

“Well! End it. Can’t we make it stop?” Rey huffs, furling her brow. 

Kylo, as disturbed by the situation as she was, shakes his head. “Outside of cutting ourselves off from Force entirely, I am not sure.”

“Just my luck,” Rey mutters. “Force-bonded with one of the First Order’s most notorious murderers.” 

“That’s amusing, when you had been the one so intent on murdering that Crolute back on Jakku.” 

“It could hardly be called a murder. A mercy for all those people he’s starved, beaten, and killed through his own disgusting greed,” she sneers. 

Kylo nods. The rage she feels is all too familiar to him, even without the benefit of feeling her emotions through the bond.

Kylo turns off his lightsaber.

“Can you see my surroundings?” He asks, curiosity growing. “I can’t see yours. Only you.” 

“All I see…,” she slurs a little, “is a nerfherding First Order menace standing between me, my bunk, a good night’s rest.” 

He glances at the half-empty bottle. “Bad dreams?”

Ignoring his statement, she scrunches her face as she notices something for the first time. “Where is your stupid helmet?” Then: “And your shirt?”

“My mask,” Kylo continues icily, ignoring the second half of her statement. “Is off. I don’t wear it to sleep.” She’s staring at him now, directly at his bare chest. 

“Ah,” she shakes her head, breaking her own spell, before her voice rises into a taunt, “So even Sith Lords have to sleep.” Apparently concluding Kylo is no immediate danger, shuts off her lightsaber, and falls back into her seat with an plop.

And then she squeals: “OW!” as something crashes into her leg. A small cylindrical droid blinks into existence, beeping at her angrily, before bouncing back and vanishing as quickly as it appeared. 

It is the BB-8 unit he was looking for on Jakku. The key to Luke Skywalker. 

“The droid. You have it!” Kylo starts, adrenaline rushing. Without thinking, he reaches a hand out, and throws a compulsion with the Force. “You’ll bring the droid to me.” 

It has no effect on Rey, even in her current state. The girl just gives him a shake of the head, and smirks. “Nuh uh, helmet boy.” 

She then takes another pull from the bottle of whiskey.

Unbelievable. 

“That stuff,” Kylo points out drily, “will strip the radiation shielding from a star destroyer.” 

She pauses, looking somewhat chastened. “It’s…it’s none of your business,” she replies sullenly. 

There’s a few moments of silence at the change in mood. 

Kylo ventures another question. “Why were you back on Jakku? Why were you so intent on killing that Crolute?” It’s a question he knows the answer to, even as he asks it.

What he doesn’t ask is why she left him, one of the most deadly men in the galaxy and a foe who just assaulted her with his lightsaber, rendered helpless in the throes of her Force illusion, alive.

“You know.” Her eyes flash. “You saw it, didn’t you. My dream.” 

Staring at the bottle in her hand, a faraway look enters her face as her train of thought pivots. “I’ve never had a drink before now. Can you believe it? On Jakku, the scavengers who got caught up in drink, spice, or drugs… well, they, didn’t last long.” 

The confession feels strangely intimate. He thinks of her home on Jakku, the beat up AT-AT, their now shared memory. “That place... makes Tatooine look like a gem of civilization.” 

Her head snaps up, oddly alert. “Tatooine? How did you--” 

At the moment, she blinks out of existence. 

\-----

As the shuttle barrels through lightspace, Cardo, Victrul, and Ap’lek stare at Kylo.

“Tatooine, huh.” Cardo offers drily behind his mask.

“The girl will be there. She has the droid with the map to Skywalker,” Kylo replies tersely, tamping down his irritation. 

“And you know this, how, Master?” Victrul queries. He’d heard the story from Ap’lek and Cardo, but like them, did not fully understand the nature of the bond that had formed between them. 

“Are you questioning my judgement, Vicrul?” Kylo responds icily. He palms his lightsaber. 

“No need for that Kylo,” Ap’lek chides. “Your loyal Knights are simply curious.” There’s amusement leaking from behind his mask. Ap’lek, of all his warriors, had the strongest connection to the Force. When he’d fought the girl on Jakku, he’d been the one to find Kylo, drawn by Kylo’s signature and the foreign signature of the girl. 

Ap’lek, along with Vicrul and Cardo, were among those who left with him when he had abandoned Skywalker’s academy. While he wouldn’t have tolerated the ribbing from the others, the history between them allowed these rare moments of something resembling camaraderie. Kylo knows the questioning isn’t a real challenge to his authority, and his irritation deflates.

General Hux, on the other hand, had given him an infuriating amount of pushback.

“Starkiller is nearly ready. The Supreme Leader has requested your presence at the test. You can’t just go traipsing off to some part of the galaxy chasing after some old washed up Jedi...” Hux was referring to his new superweapon, Starkiller base, a planet-sized energy weapon capable of destroying entire systems. Hux is irritatingly proud of it. Kylo thinks it’s a waste of First Order resources, not to mention he’s heard enough stories from his family to understand what a failure the first two Death Stars were. Why the Supreme Leader agreed to it, he didn’t quite understand.

“I don’t need to explain myself to you, Hux. Just ready my shuttle. My Knights will accompany me.”

“The Supreme Lead–” Hux droned nasally. 

“This is a sanctioned mission. Go ask him if you want,” Kylo snapped. “I’m sure he’ll be quite patient when you cry to him about matters that do not pertain to you.”

That had shut him up, for the time being. 

His plan, if it could be called as such, was simple. Corner the girl on Tatooine, convince her (or subdue her) into returning with them to the First Order, capture the droid. A neat package. Hux insisted he brought a cadre of stormtroopers to support, though Kylo was of the opinion they would hardly be of any aid given the girl’s powers. No, it was more likely another means of spying on Commander Ren’s mission. Kylo made a note to wipe their memories, or otherwise dispose of them, should it be necessary post-mission.

“The plan is still the same? No lethal force?” Cardo drawled.

“No lethal force. She must be unharmed, or at least, as much as possible. She is likely to resist. Guard your minds. Be wary of Force illusions. If it comes to it, let me handle her while you deal with any… distractions.” Kylo reiterated.

“Distractions,” Victrul spit out. “All this for a scavenger girl. Are you sure she’s not going to distract you, _Ben_?” 

Kylo’s rage boils over. It’s too much. Kylo raises a hand and Force pulls the Knight against the wall, slamming him roughly. 

“Any other questions?” Kylo asks. 

The Knights remain silent until they land on Tantooine. They arrive at Mos Eisley, one of the planet’s major spaceports. While it looks like a veritable hub of civilization compared to Niima outpost, Kylo curses again the scavenger’s apparent preference for visiting the galaxy’s most squalid desert settlements. 

“Ap’lek and Cardo, take the stormtroopers, and search the city,” he instructs. “Vicrul, with me.” He reaches out with the Force, and confirms the presence of the girl’s Force signature. He could feel her nearby, although the precision of the bond did not allow for pinpoint accuracy. 

“Remember,” he repeats. A warning. “Bring her to me unharmed.”


	5. Tatooine

As she treks across the rocky flats of Tatooine, Rey’s head throbs. The effects of the alcohol, she admits, does her no favors. Nor does the planet’s eerie resemblance to her former home in Jakku. It makes her feel like she’s in some kind of hellish nightmare. As she walks, she tries to ignore the flashes of memories of last night’s conversation with the First Order Commander. Pieces come back to her, and she feels a tinge of embarrassment, trying to divert it with anger. “Force bond”, whatever that was, or no, how  _ dare _ he intrude on her private moment, she thinks indignantly. And what was he doing, standing around with  _ no  _ shirt. She doesn’t care that he was sleeping at the time the bond connected them, that was just… just _rude_. 

She feels her face go red when she remembers herself staring at him, admiring the broad expanse of his exposed chest, feeling the flush of something more than just the alcohol affecting her. She’s not sure what’s worse… thinking that Kylo Ren was some kind of monstrous death machine under that mask, cloak and armor, or… knowing that there was a young,  _ admittedly  _ attractive man under all of that pomp and circumstance. 

And how he was almost… friendly with her. Intimate. It felt less like a meeting of enemies and more like… well, Rey doesn’t know how to describe it. 

When she finally reaches the domed structure of the Hutt palace, her mood is black indeed.

“You there! Halt, and state your business.” There are two hulking Gamorreans near the gate in front. They don’t look pleased to see their surprise visitor. One points a vibro-lance in warning at her approach. 

“I’m here to see Goran Hutt,” Rey calls out simply, walking closer to the gate, not slowing down. 

“No visitors,” the Gamorrean with the vibro-lance states, his tone brooking no argument. 

“I’m afraid that is not an acceptable answer,” she responds coldly. 

At that, the Gamorrean attacks.

Rey’s saberstaff is already out. She ignites it, cutting his lance in half, before removing the guard of his head at the base of his neck. 

The other guard she freezes with the Force as he attempts to reach for a blaster. 

Walking up to him, she doesn’t even bother with a mind trick. Digging into his mind, she finds what she’s looking for, the codes to the gate that bar entry to the subterranean bunker. 

A swift flash of her blade, and he’s disposed of, too. At the sight of the bodies, Rey feels nothing. _Murders and scumbags allied with murders and scumbags._ Just like Unkar Plutt.

Punching the code into the panel on the left, the reinforced metal creaks open. Rey walks through, finding a long passage carved that descends deeper and deeper into the rock. Several passages branch out into what she assumes must be other areas, but she uses the Force as her guide, following a cluster of signatures that indicate a gathering taking place. Alien voices and the sounds of revelry grow louder, until she finds herself in a large cavernous chamber. 

At its rear, the giant Hutt perches on his pedestal, smoking a hookah device. He’s surrounded by Twi'lek slaves, carrying serving platters of squirming ‘delicacies’ that make even Rey’s stomach turn. His court, a retinue of crude looking species of all varieties, almost all of them armed. The Hutt turns his enormous, unblinking gaze at Rey’s approach. 

Rey’s saberstaff is still ignited, glowing menacingly. The cacophony of the room dies off, as everyone pauses to stare at the stranger with the lightsaber. 

<<Jedi?>>, Goran Hutt drawls gutturally in Huttese, inhaling from the hookah as he speaks. <<I don’t recall inviting a Jedi.>>

“Not a Jedi,” Rey shakes her head. “I have business for you, Goran Hutt,” she states flatly. She’s determined to get what she came here for.

The Hutt waves back a new group of Gammoreans who step forward brandishing their weapons. 

<<Then state it. You interrupted something>>. His gaze rolls up and down as he gauges her, then flits over to a pair of scantily dressed slaves. 

Rey, pitching her voice loudly, reads a list of names, committed to heart from the Letter. 

“I need information. Do you know them?” She asks, trying to keep the frustration from her voice.

Before she had killed Plutt, she had ravaged Plutt’s brain for any clue to her family. Why she was left on Jakku. Plutt, for once, had not lied to her. Not completely. He did not know why she had been left there, as a child. There was only the snippet of a conversation from his memory, between Plutt and a man she had never seen on Jakku again:

_ “I don’t know where she’s from. But if I bring her to Goran Hutt, she’s not safe.” _

_ Plutt had grunted a few words. “So what. She’s my problem now?” _

_ “You owe me,” the man warned. “This is for her.” He pulled the Letter from a pocket and stuffed at Plutt. “Give it to her, or I’ll know.” The man then walked away. _

If the Hutt recognizes the names, he does not show it on his face. His bulbous tail flicks up and down slowly. 

<<I may be able to help you girl, but we have not yet discussed…the price.>>

Rey finds his mind irritatingly resistant to her probes from the Force. His species must be resistant, or he’s particularly strong willed.

“Name it.” She turns off her lightsaber.

At this, the grotesque mouth forms something like a smile. “50 thousand credits. And a favor. Owed to me.”

Rey smiles. “Very well.” Before she had left Jakku, she had stolen Plutt’s credit chips. They weren’t used for trade on Jakku, and she had been shocked to find how much he had stashed away. Enough to clothe, feed, and water the inhabitants of Niima outpost for a year, two times over. More evidence of his greed. She throws a few at the floor near Goran Hutt and a Twi'lek rushes over to gather them for his master.

The Hutt continues lazily, not missing a beat.

<<The first name on your list is someone who has done some work for me. He is in the business of, hrmmm, discretely transporting certain parties.>> _ Code for human trafficking,  _ Rey thinks in disgust. <<You’ll find him, at some point or another, drinking at Maz’s at Takodana. His aliases are numerous, but ask for Chet. He works alone.>>

<<The second name, I do not recognize. But the last one, that one is interesting. Tell me, girl, have you heard of the witches of Dathomir?>>

Rey freezes. “Tell me.”

<<They say she is one of those witches. Find her on that planet. Be careful, girl. She is very powerful. When she travels in the Rim, she goes by the alias Amana Dakspor.>>

Something is wrong. 

At his words, Rey’s eyes go dark. Her head spins and the air rushes in her ears. The headache she is nursing magnifies, threatening to overtake her vision. 

In her distraction, she does not notice the sound of approaching footsteps from the tunnel, nor the Hutt’s eyes swell at the figures approaching her from behind.

Rey spins on her heel to find Kylo Ren and one of his Knights waiting at the precipice of the entrance to the Hutt’s hall.

_ Not again _ , she mutters to herself in frustration. Still, some part of her is oddly not surprised to see the Commander here. Confused, there’s even a thread of… excitement, seeing him again. She can’t see his eyes but could swear she feels his gaze on her, behind his mask. 

At the sight of the First Order commander and his Knight, most of the room’s guests, previously watching the exchange with curiosity, scatter into the bowels of the palace with terror. Goran Hutt smashes a button on his pedestal and more guards, this time, deadlier, weathered looking killers, pour into the room. 

<<Commander Ren.>> The Hutt continues calmly in Huttese. <<What reason do we have for the visit from the First Order…?>> His guards continue amassing in the background.

“I have business with the girl.” Ren points to Rey, his modulated voice coming out flat. “She’s coming with me.” 

The Hutt makes a strangled sound. <<We are in the middle of a transaction. The girl owes me her services. She stays here.>>

“I’m not going with  _ either _ of you.” Rey butts in, indignant that they are bartering over her like she’s some kind of prize from a scavenge. She re-ignites her saberstaff, anger growing. She turns to Kylo and the Knight of Ren, who was standing casually with a mean-looking vibro-scythe thrown over his shoulder. “Stay out of this, Commander Ren. Take your bucket head flunky with you and  _ get out. _ ” 

The Knight at Kylo’s side speaks up, chuckling behind his mask. “The name’s Vicrul. She’s a feisty one, Master. I look forward to taming her.” 

Kylo makes no motion, continuing to hold his stance as he stares past Rey to Goran Hutt. 

<<The First Order has no jurisdiction here. >> Goran Hutt continues to Ren, ignoring Rey. Then, to his guards: <<Take her. >>

Rey spins to face the eight armored warriors that surround her. She force pushes half of them away, then runs at two screaming a war cry as she slices them in the midsection with each half of her saber. They are faster than the Gammoreans, but none of them are a match for Rey, whose reflexes were honed on Jakku even before she learned how to wield the Force.

Vicrul and Kylo stand and watch, for a minute, as Rey cuts down wave after wave with her saberstaff. 

“Well. She can hold her own,” Vicrul quips, watching her peel through four of them with a furious set of spins. “I can see why Snoke wants her.” 

Suddenly the men pull out a device from their pockets and suddenly… Rey feels them blink out of existence from the Force. Rey freezes, confused, and Kylo and his Knight go deathly still.

The Hutt, still perched on his throne, hacks out a slow, guttural laugh. 

<<A shield. Developed when my ancestor had an unfortunate encounter with the Jedi Skywalker. It creates a vortex where your kind cannot access your powers. The others thought me paranoid, with all the Jedi gone from the galaxy.>>

Then, he calls to his men, waving at Rey, the First Order Commander, and his Knight. 

<<Subdue them.>>

Gathering her strength, Rey attempts a Force push on the aggressor closest to her. It has no effect. It’s almost as though the Force is sucked away. The man’s scarred face smiles menacingly and he advances, raising a electro-whip in one hand and brandishing a set of Force-suppressant cuffs in the other. 

Hutt’s forces split, half of them now going after Kylo and Vicrul. Rey brandishes her staff aggressively, attempting to keep some distance in case the mysterious Force shields might affect her access to the Force directly. From the corner of her eye, Rey watches as Vicrul takes four and slams them down, but takes a hit to the side of his arm with a pike. Enraged, he cuts down the shooter and stomps in the direction of Goran Hutt’s pedestal, ripping the pike in half and leaving part of it embedded in his shoulder.

Without realizing it, she finds herself side-to-side with Kylo Ren as Hutt’s thugs close in. He manages to cut one in half, but three more approach, two carrying Force-suppressant manacles. 

Rey tries something.  _ “Any ideas?” _ Rey calls to Kylo with her thoughts.

_ I suppose your illusions won’t work _ , she hears his reply in her brain.  __

_ No.  _ She huffs.  _ It is like they are… dead to me.  _

Rey feels a blaster hit her right shoulder at close range and cries out, clutching her wound. She spins her saberstaff to cut the blaster in half, but the thug then pulls a knife and stabs her leg, and Rey involuntarily drops her weapon. Seeing her wound, Kylo turns and stabs the man in the chest. The man slithers to the ground.

Rey is not sure how, but she senses Kylo feels her pain through the Force. At that, his rage explodes, and Rey feels it through the bond as if it is her own.

With a raised hand, she sees Kylo Ren pull a chunk of loose rocks from the walls and slams them at his opponents. They all are pushed back toward the dias, where Vicrul is gleefully slicing at the screaming Hutt with his scythe.

Gathering the dark power around him, Kylo reaches up and  _ pulls _ .

The ceiling collapses in front of Rey and Kylo, pinning down their attackers. She hears a second of screams before they are crushed under the weight.

Rey, clutching her injured shoulder grabs her saberstaff hilt from the floor, attempts to stand up. Blood leaks from the would on her thigh. She stumbles.

“Don’t,” Kylo says, reading her intention. Then, she sees him looking around. The underground structure is rumbling, creaking with residual instability. “We need to get out of here,” he barks shortly.

Then, improbably, he turns off his lightsaber, looks at her, and offers a hand. 

Rey stares at it for a few solid seconds before taking it, pulling herself upright and bracing herself on his shoulder. “I’m not going with you,” she protests weakly.

Kylo snorts. “You have very little choice.” He looks at her staggered gait. “You can’t walk.”

With a swift movement he scoops her up, bridal style, like she weighs nothing but paper, and starts to jog out of the increasingly unstable structure. 

“Put me down, helmet head!” She screams in warning. Thumping at his chest. The Commander’s amusement leaks through the bond. He’s never been so happy for the armor under his tunic. 

Kylo keeps his eyes ahead, but is hyper aware of the contrast between the wiry muscle of her shoulders and the softness on the back of her thighs. “No.” 

Rey catches his thoughts and blushes. The wound on her leg is bleeding freely, however. Hutt’s thug must have hit an artery, or something, and she reluctantly concludes that running on it would only exacerbate the wound. She shuts up but does not stop fuming. 

They emerge from the cavern as it continues creaks and rumbles behind them, sounds of collapse. 

Rey flashes a black look of warning at Kylo, putting all of her murderous intention behind her will. Reluctantly, he lets her go. He makes sure he steels his mental barriers in the way Snoke instructed to prevent the Force illusion from taking hold. The trick she tried earlier... He will not fall for it again.

She’s still stumbling and leaking blood. She ignites her saberstaff menacingly. 

“Why did you enter there alone? The Hutts are not to be trifled with.” Kylo asks.

“That’s none of your business.”

“It must have been something important.”

“He had information I needed.” 

“You’re wounded. Where is your ship?”

Without thinking Rey points in the direction of the flats where she left the  _ Falcon _ , then curses to herself, remembering the droid that the First Order Commander was so intent on possessing.

Kylo turns, striding toward the  _ Falcon _ as swiftly as possible. Rey struggles to keep up, dripping blood on the sand.

“Wait! HOLD ON!” She cries out, hoping to distract him.

He looks at her, amused behind his helmet. “Now you want my help?”

Rey seethes, her head spinning from the loss of blood. “I–”

She feels the world go black. 


End file.
